Hostage tells of saviour dying in her arms [$6m to $8m ransom paid by Italians?]

The Times (UK) ^ | 3/7/05 | John Follain

[saquin]

THE Italian hostage who was freed by her captors in Iraq only to be wounded by “friendly” American gunfire, returned to Rome yesterday and gave friends a brief, anguished glimpse of the suffering that she had endured.

Giuliana Sgrena, a 56-year-old journalist, was in visible pain as she was helped out of the private jet that had brought her home.

The journey that began with the joy of her release had been brought to a juddering halt when American soldiers opened fire on the car taking her to Baghdad airport, killing the Italian intelligence officer who had negotiated her freedom.

Before she boarded an ambulance for a Rome hospital where doctors were waiting to treat her fractured collarbone, Sgrena, who works for the left-wing Il Manifesto newspaper, said of her month-long ordeal: “The most difficult moment was when I saw die in my arms the man who had saved me.”

It was a sombre homecoming. The shots that killed Nicola Calipari, 50, a member of SISMI, the Italian military intelligence service, who threw himself across Sgrena to shield her, wounded two other officers, and triggered mutual recriminations between the United States and one of its most loyal allies in Iraq.

Sgrena’s release was further overshadowed by reports in Italian newspapers that the government of Silvio Berlusconi, the prime minister, had agreed to pay a ransom of between $6m (£3.2m) and $8m. When two relief workers, Simona Torretta and Simona Pari, were freed last year, intelligence sources said the ransom paid was $5m.

Sgrena’s ordeal began when kidnappers stopped her vehicle on February 4 outside a mosque near An-Nahrein University in Baghdad, where she had been interviewing refugees from the war-ravaged city of Falluja.

As Berlusconi announced that negotiations with unspecified contacts had begun, a video released by her captors showed her making a tearful appeal. “Help me, help,” she said. “My life depends on you. Pressure the Italian government into withdrawing its troops.”

Calipari was the key to Italy’s efforts on her behalf. From an office on the American base at Camp Victory, close to Baghdad airport, he sought out mediators to establish contact with the kidnappers. However, he was careful to keep his American hosts in the dark as the two allies pursue different strategies in such cases.

As a member of the American Delta Force pointed out: “The Italians negotiate, they’re ready to pay a ransom. As far as we’re concerned, it’s absolutely out of the question.”

One of Calipari’s channels was an assembly of religious leaders. He travelled regularly to Abu Dhabi for talks that covered the ransom, humanitarian aid convoys and medical care in Italy for wounded Iraqis.

The breakthrough came on Thursday when a mediator fulfilled his promise to supply Calipari with a video of Sgrena. It showed her looking more relaxed, her hair tidy as she stood in front of a pile of fruit and a copy of the Koran.

For Calipari, his mission was almost complete. “It’s going well, we’re bringing her home,” he told his superiors in a call to Rome. “I don’t know when yet, but we’ll manage.”

The next evening Sgrena was freed on the outskirts of Baghdad where a team headed by Calipari drove her away. Al-Jazeera, the Arab satellite television network, broke the news of her release and broadcast the last video.

That rainy, windy night, three cars moved through Baghdad escorting Sgrena to the airport where a Falcon jet — sent by Berlusconi — was standing by to fly her home.

Just before 9pm, the vehicles came to Checkpoint 504-Camp Victory, manned by troops of the US Third Infantry Division. Reports yesterday conflicted on precisely what happened next.

According to Sgrena herself, a “rain of fire” was unleashed at the Italians as she was talking to Calipari: “We weren’t going very fast, considering. The driver didn’t even manage to explain that we were Italians.

“We thought the danger was over after my release to the Italians but all of a sudden there was this shoot-out, we were hit by a barrage of bullets,” she said last night.

Calipari was updating her about news in Italy since her capture. “He leaned over me, probably to protect me, and then he slumped down, and I saw he was dead,” she said.

Sgrena’s boyfriend, Pier Scolari, claimed yesterday that both the American and Italian authorities had been alerted to the group’s passage. They had already passed through several control points when a bright light illuminated it, Scolari said. “They fired at her. The Americans stopped the cars which were carrying Giuliana, they fired 300 to 400 bullets and they killed a man, without any reason.”

The Third Division gave a different account, saying troops had fired at a speeding car whose driver had “refused to stop at a checkpoint”. The soldiers had tried hand and arm signals and had flashed white lights and fired warning shots.

The State Department in Washington laid the blame squarely on the Italians. An official said they had not given any news of Sgrena’s release to the American embassy in Baghdad, or to US military commanders.

President George W Bush telephoned Berlusconi late at night to promise a thorough investigation. The Italians have launched their own inquiry.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Yep, they didn't wast the Americans to know that the left-wing Italians were funding the terrorists.

[llama hunter]

as I noted in another thread, I can already see several inconsistencies in the Italian stories

Reuters, who had one of the initial reports, reported that this woman was already wounded when she was picked up and the reason the car was speeding was the driver was trying to get her to medical help asap

but she says they weren't driving fast

the boyfriend says there was was a bright light shone on the car, she says there was no bright light shone of the car, ah the inconsistency

and yes I have even less sympathy knowing the Italians were stupid enough to pay that kind of ransom money to insurgents or just plain old Iraqi criminals to continue killing Iraqis and coalition troops....

I think one less Italian communist journalist is a small price to pay, selfish bitch